This is a place to let our children sing out through their perfect art. It is also a chance to let us all enjoy their creativity, stories and talent.
“Art is never wrong; it simply is.”

ART PROJECTS

June 13, 2016

I had the distinct privilege today to make blankets with our 8th graders as their service project. They are doing a few projects, but this is their big one. They were able to choose and they chose to make fleece blankets for a shelter in Portland that serves adults 15 - 23 as they start a fresh life, learn how to interview, get off the streets.

At this age, they understand the importance of someone having faith in you and your future. They understand the importance of a warm blanket made with love. We did so well with our coupons at JoAnn Fabrics it kept it in our budget to make 30 XL double thick blankets to donate.

May 20, 2016

The foundation of Moore's approach was direct carving, something he derived not only from European modernism, but also from non-Western art. He abandoned the process of modeling (often in clay or plaster) and casting (often in bronze) that had been the basis of his art education, and instead worked on materials directly. He liked the fierce involvement direct carving brought with materials such as wood and stone. It was important, he said, that the sculptor "gets the solid shape, as it were, inside his head... he identifies himself with its center of gravity."

Related to his commitment to direct carving was a belief in the ethic of 'truth to materials.' This was the idea that the sculptor should respect the intrinsic properties of media like wood and stone, letting them show through in the finished piece. A material had its own vitality, Moore believed, "an intense life of its own," and it was his job to reveal it.

Often regarded as the father of modern British sculpture, Henry Moore’s large-scale bronze and marble sculptures can be found in public parks and plazas around the world. Working in various styles and mediums, Moore is perhaps best known for his highly abstract and interpretive renditions of the human figure, often portrayed in the reclining position. He was influenced by Classical, Pre-Columbian, and African art, and bySurrealism; his biomorphic style has been compared that of Salvador Dalí and Jean Arp.

What stood out to the students in the presentation of his works was the size. They were in awe of what it would take to execute such a large piece. They also enjoyed talking about how it would look from different angles - especially the pieces installed in fields and gardens. They took into consideration the weather and how that would affect how it was viewed. They wondered how much planning he was involved in with the final location of the larger pieces.

Our production was a small clay sculpture. We used air-dry clay. It's more brittle than fired clay, but we didn't have kiln time. Some used the opportunity to make Mother's Day gifts instead. Most were inspired by Henry Moore's style.

There have been so many television specials about the life of Walt Disney, his inspiration, and his legacy. Living in Oregon, it's not that convenient to go to Disneyland. It's a REAL treat when the students in my son's class get to go. What they love are the movies. They can all sing songs from every movie. Our school musical is usually a Disney Jr. production of something with a princess. Getting to study Walt Disney in ArtLit was a true treat for them. Last year we had done the animation lesson, focusing on Warner Bros. cartoons. It was a blast to bring that back into this lesson and talk about key frames, flip books and the planning process.

We gave them 12 - 20 small sheets to make flip books. Since they were familiar with key frames and tweeners (the beginning and end and the parts that get you from one to the other) they had a different approach to this. The students K-2 made a single animation cel.

One concept they had to plan for is if they are right or left handed - how will they hold their flip book to flip through their drawings? Knowing this, they also realized putting details at the "holding" end of the book wouldn't work, so they worked out a narrow design that still had movement.

October 05, 2015

Not all artists start out as artists. Sometimes the earn a degree in mathematics, write songs and work their way over to visual arts.

Romare Bearden began college at Lincoln University, transferred to Boston University and completed his studies at New York University (NYU), graduating with a degree in education. While at NYU, Bearden took extensive courses in art and was a lead cartoonist and then art editor for the monthly journal The Medley. He had also been art director of Beanpot, the student humor magazine of Boston University. Bearden published many journal covers during his university years and the first of numerous texts he would write on social and artistic issues. He also attended the Art Students League in New York and later, the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1935, Bearden became a weekly editorial cartoonist for the Baltimore Afro-American, which he continued doing until 1937.

Bearden was also a respected writer and an eloquent spokesman on artistic and social issues of the day. Continue reading his biography on the Bearden Foundation site.

Here him speak as he shares about his art and music and how the culminate.

We've decided to use collage for our production. This keeps the costs down for your group and opens up tremendous possibilities. In speaking with my 10 year old about this lesson, he told me that it may be difficult for some of his classmates to select on scene or memory to depict and may fall back on the same-ol-same-ol flags and Minecraft imagery. He suggested that you give the students a day or two to look forward to the lesson by asking them to think about a favorite memory or photo or place to recreate in art.

Here are some of the samples we parent volunteers created. My favorite is the one with the cat eyes and French fry hair. We are in Oregon, so nature, woods, produce are big - it is also a reflection of the magazines we had. Could have been WAY different with Time, Nat Geo or Rolling Stone.

Romare Bearden told us stories of his life - in Harlem. He depicted the music scene, social movements, poverty, every day people. In doing so, he brought a life that many didn't know existed outside of stereotypes and helped add a human element to them.

The terms we covered in this lesson were:

Collage: A composition made by adhering different materials to the surface of a work. Collage tends to break the unity of the composition and create deliberate spatial disharmonies and incongruities of scale.

Shape: An area contained within an actual or implied line. Shape has 2 dimensions, length and width. Shapes can be organic or geometric. organic shapes reflect objects found in nature that are free formed, natural and curved. Geometric shapes include triangles, squares, rectangles and circles, they are hard-edged and usually man-made.

Texture: The surface feel of an object or the representation of surface character. Texture is the actual and "visual feel" of surface areas as hey are arranged and altered by man or nature. Actual texture is a surface that stimulates a tactile response when actually touched. Implied (simulated) texture is a representation of an actual texture created by a careful copying of the light and dark pattern characteristic of its surface.

Explore some of the images of Romane Bearden's art through the decades.

August 22, 2015

Recently, at the Portland Art Museum, they had a wonderful event called the Monster Rally where 3 rounds of 30 artists each drew something to sell for $35 as a fundraiser. It was wildly successful and a deck of cards had to settle battles over several pieces.

As a side activity, there were tables to create an Exquisite Corpse, based on a Victorian parlor game. In this, you have a tall piece of paper - legal size or tabloid work well. You divide it into three equal parts: Head, Torso, Legs.

FOLD it so that you only see one panel - the head.

You need three people for this. Each person has the same type of sheet and each person starts with the head. DO NOT let the others see what you are making. Pencil is fine for this part. Have gum erasers ready, too, and pencil sharpeners.

When each has completed their heads, they fold it to conceal that panel and expose the TORSO - pass to the right or left and each works on the next section. Repeat for the legs/bottom.

The key is, before you pass your panel, you need to carry the lines marking your neck, where they legs go, etc. to the next person so it will line up. otherwise it won't work out.

It helps if the artists each use a heavier stroke. Hard to connect when some are faded. You can color them after, or before you pass them.

Variation with words instead of pictures:

Freeform word game.

Among Surrealist techniques exploiting the mystique of accident was a kind of collective collage of words or images called the cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse). Based on an old parlor game, it was played by several people, each of whom would write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold the paper to conceal part of it, and pass it on to the next player for his contribution.

The technique got its name from results obtained in initial playing, "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau" (The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine). Other examples are: "The dormitory of friable little girls puts the odious box right" and "The Senegal oyster will eat the tricolor bread." These poetic fragments were felt to reveal what Nicolas Calas characterized as the "unconscious reality in the personality of the group" resulting from a process of what Ernst called "mental contagion."

In other words, start with part of story, or phrase and write on your third - beginning, middle, end. You could even create the pictures to go with the story. That would be funny.

March 11, 2015

Our volunteers are huge fans of his mobiles - especially the 60' wide ones! But, for the sake of a classroom project, we are opting to make pipecleaner animals in the spirit of his circus.

Alexander Calder created works of art throughout his childhood. While living in Pasadena in 1906 amidst the flourishing Arts and Crafts Movement, Calder was given his first tools and a workshop where he made toys and jewelry for his sister’s dolls. For Christmas in 1909, Calder presented his parents with two of his earliest sculptures, a dog and a duck made out of bent brass sheet. In his twenties, Calder moved to New York and studied at the Art Students League where he produced paintings congruous with the Ashcan aesthetic. He worked concurrently at the National Police Gazette, illustrating sporting events and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and he made hundreds of brush drawings of animals at the Bronx and Central Park zoos, later published in Animal Sketching. Calder commonly used sheet metal and wire for sculptures and other projects during this period.

November 03, 2010

In this lesson we're covering bark paintings, ceramics, Oaxacan wood carvings, Day of the Dead (dia de las muertes), serapes and huichol yarn painting. The production is a bit daunting for younger children. The adults testing this out were a bit tested as we attempted to make sharp corners out of yarn. We're opting to purchase wikistiks or Bendaroos for the younger ones to allow them to have more success.

The goal is to teach them about warm and cool colors as well as the entire Mexican folk art culture and traditions. We don't need them melting down over glue on their fingers and yarn that won't stay put.

February 24, 2010

Today's project went well! We had a couple of hiccups - substitute teacher, my daughter was home sick, my husband was with her. Plan B - VERY helpful, wonderful students that made it so enjoyable. The photos were taken by the students after they finished their projects. I think they liked the camera as much as making the eggs.

February 03, 2010

This one is our most expensive project per child, which suprised us all until we realized we've been so great at using scraps, recycled materials, etc. up to this point. This may be about $1.50 per child to pull off. We are very excited to do a three-dimensional project as we learn about Peter Carl Fabergé. Peter Carl Fabergé (1846-1920), Russian court jeweler to Tsar Alexander III and his consort, Marie Fedorovna, and to Tsar Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna, created Easter eggs and objets d’art from 1885-1918. It is estimated the House of Fabergé in St. Petersburg and other Russian cities, with a sales branch in London, created some 250,000 decorative objects. The famous Easter eggs and other Fabergé objects in museums and private collections worldwide are seen in permanent and traveling exhibitions. Objects for sale may be purchased from reputable dealers or leading auction houses. For more biographical details about the House of Fabergé see Lowes and McCanless, Fabergé Eggs: A Retrospective Encyclopedia, 2001.